crew of the Sea King. From Teneriffe, Ramsay proceeded to Nassau, and took the Laurel from that port into Charleston with a most valuable cargo of supplies, shipped by Mr. Heyleger, the Confederate agent at Nassau. Immediately after the arrival of the Laurel at Charleston, early in December, 1864, the Secretary of the Navy directed me to sell her when she came out; but upon further consultation with Lieutenant Ramsay, she was transferred to the Treasury Department at cost price. She was then loaded with cotton on account of the Treasury, and got safely through the blockade. While in Charleston the name of the Laurel was changed to the Confederate States. She was the subject of some correspondence between the United States Minister to England and her Majesty's Government, which appears to have ended with the following statement contained in a letter from Earl Russell to Mr. Adams, in March, 1865-Her Majesty's Government are advised that although the proceedings of the steamer Confederate States, formerly Laurel, may have rendered her liable to capture on the high seas by the cruisers of the United States, she has not, so far as is known, committed any offence punishable by British law.'*

As the Laurel was transferred from one Department of the Government to the other, there arose no question of profit or loss; but, looking to the service she rendered to the Shenandoah, the freight she would have earned on the inward cargo to Charleston if it had been carried on private account, and her transfer at cost price, the transaction as regards the Navy Department resulted in a very substantial profit. I cannot state whether the

* See United States Case,' p. 123.

†The blockade rates of freight were then about £50 per ton.

Laurel (Confederate States) made more than one voyage through the blockade. She belonged to another Department. I had no further control over her, and have never learned what became of her at the close of the war, which came to an end in a few months after her first departure from Charleston.

CHAPTER IV.

Admiral Farragut and his achievements.-The Federal and Confederate naval forces compared.-Abortive attempts at shipbuilding in Confederate ports.-The Ordnance Service of the Confederate Navy Department.-Financial arrangements at Richmond and in Europe. English ironworkers sent out to the Confederate Government. The Confederate States Representatives at Bermuda, Nassau, and Havana.-The purchase and despatch of the Coquette. -Vessels bought for the commercial purposes of the Confederate Government.-Embarrassments arising from speculative contractors and from friendly offers of vessels.-Commander M. F. Maury.— The Georgia and the Rappahannock.—The Pampero.-Total cost of the Alabama, Florida, and Shenandoah.

WHEN Mr. Stephen R. Mallory was placed at the head of the Navy Department in the Provisional Government which was hastily organized at Montgomery in February, 1861, there was but little to gratify his ambition in the high office assigned him. The entire want of the commonest, as well as the most essential, materials and resources for building and equipping a navy was painfully apparent, and he must have felt how impossible it would prove for him to satisfy the public expectations, or to accomplish anything that would be accepted as evidence of due forethought and energy on his part. In war, people hope for brilliant operations, if not always for complete success, and as it is impossible for a Department of State to explain either its purposes or the means of

fulfilling them to the general public, the absence of striking results is often attributed to the want of genius to plan or of energy and skill in administration.

It is difficult to imagine a more troublesome and trying position than that which was thrust upon Mr. Mallory. His colleague at the War Office was compelled to assume grave responsibilities, and to undertake a burdensome task. The lack of military resources was quite as manifest as the want of naval materials, but there was plenty of bone and sinew in the country, and hosts of ardent, gallant spirits, and these required no urging to rally them to the flag. They were as good material for soldiers as could be found, and the Secretary of War was able to collect and organize a force which met with a notable success at a very early period of the contest, and the army and its administrative staff were launched into public notice, and introduced to national favour, with a prestige that the sister Department could not imitate and the sister service could not rival.

Nothing could induce me to disparage the professional ability, the sense of honour, or the gallantry of those officers of the United States navy who remained, if I may use the phraseology of the period, 'faithful to the old flag,' an expression which in plain language simply means that the officers from the North retained their commissions in the navy of a Federal Union composed of their own native States. But I feel bound to say that I am not restrained from criticism or reproach by the vigilant and resolute exertion of any moral force opposing and overcoming a severe and acrimonious spirit. I neither feel now, nor have I ever been moved to, the slightest sentiment of ill-will against the personnel of the United States navy, and I have no grudge to gratify, and no personal injury to retaliate. There is

therefore no temptation for me to depreciate the exertions of that corps during the Civil War, or to intimate that the victories achieved by United States ships over the very inadequate resistance the Confederates were able to oppose to them have given the full measure of the skill and daring of the American navy.

Any fair critic will admit that Farragut showed that he had the qualities in kind which make a great naval commander. To what degree he possessed them can hardly be said to have been fully tested. There was undoubtedly energy in preparation, and an admirable exhibition of personal resource and courage in his operations on the Mississippi and at Mobile, but then the inefficient armament of the forts, the insufficiency of the artificial obstructions, and the feebleness of the opposing Confederate vessels, are so strikingly manifest to those who have been able to obtain trustworthy reports, that the success achieved cannot be regarded with much surprise, while on the other hand defeat could only have been the result of signal failure in the execution. From the performances of the United States navy during the Civil War, it may be fairly inferred that there is more ability in the service than the opportunities revealed; and I have no doubt that if the occasion had required greater exertion and higher professional qualities, the necessary fortitude and skill would have been forthcoming.

Lord Napier of Magdala was greatly commended, and was raised to the peerage, because he organized and carried out the expedition to Abyssinia with much judgment, prudence, and skill, and the final movements were so rapid that he effected a complete success with very slight loss to his own forces. He was justly thought to have exhibited a rare union of military